French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has survived two no-confidence votes in parliament, winning crucial backing from the Socialist Party thanks to his pledge to suspend President Emmanuel Macron's contested pension reform.

The two motions presented by the hard-left France Unbowed and the far-right National Rally (RN) on Thursday, local time, secured just 271 and 144 votes respectively — well short of the 289 votes needed to bring down Mr Lecornu's days-old government.

The prime minister's offer to mothball the pension reform until after the 2027 presidential election helped sway the Socialists, giving the government a lifeline in the deeply fragmented National Assembly.

Despite the reprieve, the motions underscored the fragility of Mr Macron's administration midway through his final

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